When Gian Gastone de' Medici — the last Grand Duke — died in 1737 without an heir, the grand duchy passed by pre-arranged treaty to the House of Lorraine.
The Medici dynasty was finished.
Gian Gastone's sister Anna Maria Luisa was the last survivor. She was 70.
She negotiated one final condition: the entire Medici art collection — every painting, sculpture, manuscript, and jewel — must remain in Florence forever and be made accessible to the public.
The House of Lorraine agreed.
She signed it, and died six years later.
The Patto di famiglia — the Family Pact — is the reason the Uffizi exists as a public museum rather than being dispersed to Vienna, St Petersburg, or London.
Anna Maria Luisa saved it all.
She is buried in the Medici Chapel at San Lorenzo, in the crypt beneath Michelangelo's tombs.
Fun fact: she is not among the famous Medici the world remembers.
She held no great power and commissioned no great art.
She simply, at the very end, made sure the art stayed.
